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Thursday, February 9, 2017

The Ghostwalk Eidolon Class, First Draft

I wanted to toss this up here for feedback as I work on the Ghostwalk stuff. The 3E eidolon was one of two classes that ghosts could gain levels in, and I am currently carrying that conceit forward. It was a very barebones class with no proficiencies, no powers, no anything; just a bunch of ghost feats every other level.

Instead of doing that, I am giving it a somewhat more practical advancement track. I've created a form of currency, motes of ectoplasm, to power its abilities. Three of the six ghost paths from Ghostwalk (corruptor, poltergeist, and traveler) are going to be the archetypes for the eidolon. The eidoloncer, the caster-variant of ghosts, will use the other three (dominator, haunt, shaper).

The Path of the Corruptor is mostly done, and is an offensive-focused fighter-alike for ghosts; it will be posted as part of today's entry. Poltergeist will be something of a ranged fighter that animates objects to attack people, and traveler will be more rogue-like and evasive. Dominator possesses the bodies of enemies and uses them like puppets. Haunt is... something. I don't know yet. Shaper does funky stuff with ectoplasm to heal, harm, and create temporary ghost-themed magic items for party consumption.

Anyway, eidolon is below. It's still something of a mish-mash of themes, I find myself struggling to give it a single cohesive set of powers that all feel like they belong together. In particular, Wave of Wrath feels wrong and I will almost certainly replace it.

Needs work overall. Not quite happy with it.

Eidolon

Eidolons are the most common form of ghosts, consisting of those spirits who possessed a martial or otherwise physical bent in life. While they do not possess many overt physical characteristics compared to their living counterparts, eidolons choose a path that defines whether they are a violent ravager of the physical world, a manipulator and possessor of objects, or a fleeting spirit that is hard to pin down.

Force of Presence

While not wearing armor, your Armor Class is equal to 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Charisma modifier. You can benefit from the use of a shield.

Ghost Path

At 1st level, you choose your Ghost Path from among the Path of the Corruptor, Path of the Poltergeist, and Path of the Traveler.

Viscous Ectoplasm

Your body is comprised of ectoplasm, which is both a measure of your metaphysical resilience and a source of your ghostly powers. Beginning at 1st level, you can create 1 *mote of ectoplasm* to power your special abilities. You gain additional motes of ectoplasm as you gain levels in this class. You regain all expended motes of ectoplasm after completing a long or short rest.

You can expend 1 mote of ectoplasm to add your Charisma modifier to the damage of any successful melee or ranged weapon attack you make.

Ectoplasmic Weapon

At 2nd level, you may extrude a portion of your ectoplasm to create a single one or two-handed melee weapon. You expend 1 mote of ectoplasm and use your action to create this weapon. The weapon is considered to have the *ghost touch* quality. The weapon disappears if you drop it or attempt to give the weapon to another creature. You can maintain this weapon on your person for up to 8 hours so long as it is gripped in your hand or visibly "sheathed" somewhere on your body.

When you reach 6th level, your ectoplasmic weapon is considered magical for the purposes of striking creatures with immunity or resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

Ghost Sight

Beginning at 3rd level, gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. If your race already possesses darkvision, you increase the range of your existing darkvision by 30 feet. You can expend 1 mote of ectoplasm as a bonus action to gain blindsight out to a range of 10 feet until the end of your next turn.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2 or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Ghost Fade

When you reach 7th level, you may expend 1 mote of ectoplasm and use your bonus action to become *invisible* until the end of your next turn, or until you make an attack or cast a spell.

Wave of Wrath

Upon reaching 11th level, you may expend 2 motes of ectoplasm and use your action to become a wave of violent ectoplasm. You choose one unoccupied location that you can see within 60 feet of you and draw a line between your current position and the desired location. All creatures in the line of effect must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or suffer 8d6 damage as you sheer through their bodies with ghostly fury. You may choose for this damage to be either psychic or necrotic.

A creature that succeeds on their saving throw suffers only half damage. You teleport to the location at the end of the line of effect as part of the wave. This movement does not trigger opportunity attacks.

Terrifying Reaping

Beginning at 14th level, you may expend 1 mote of ectoplasm whenever you reduce a creature to zero hit points to devour a portion of its escaping soul. You immediately gain temporary hit points equal to your eidolon level, and all hostile creatures within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the end of your next turn.

Rise Again

An eidolon of 20th level resists the Calling even when they should rightfully be destroyed. Whenever you are reduced to zero hit points by any source of damage, you can expend 1 mote of ectoplasm to immediately regain hit points equal to your level. You gain one level of exhaustion.

Path of the Corruptor

Corruptors are wrathful ghosts, filled with anger at their state of being and capable of wreaking havoc with ghostly weaponry formed from their own bodies. Though they are primarily focused on offense, they possess a small number of abilities to give them greater staying power, so long as they properly manage their ectoplasm.

Resilient Corpus

When you select this path at 1st level, your hit point maximum increases by 1 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level in this class. You are proficient in the use of shields.

Leeching Strike

When you reach 10th level, you can expend 1 mote of ectoplasm when you strike a creature with a melee weapon attack in order to restore 3d6 hit points. If this attack is made with your ectoplasmic weapon, you regain additional hit points equal to your Charisma modifier.

Corrupting Touch

At 13th level, whenever you strike a creature a melee weapon attack, you can expend 1 mote of ectoplasm to inflict 3d6 additional necrotic damage. If this attack is made with your ectoplasmic weapon, you increase the damage dealt to 3d8.

Violent Retribution

Upon reaching 17th level, you can expend 1 mote of ectoplasm as a reaction when you are struck by a melee, ranged, or spell attack. You gain resistance against the damage inflicted by the attack, and the damage that you resisted is dealt to each creatures adjacent to you as psychic damage or necrotic damage, at your option.